Smaug
Smaug (also known as Smaug the Dragon) is the main antagonist of the 1937 classic novel The Hobbit by the late J.R.R. Tolkien and its many adaptations. He appears as one of the three main antagonists in Peter Jackson's live action film trilogy of The Hobbit (2012-2014), alongside Azog the Defiler and the Dark Lord Sauron. He appears as an unseen antagonist in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the titular main antagonist of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, before reappearing as a supporting antagonist in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In the live action trilogy, he was voiced by the Academy Award nominated actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, who also played Khan from Star Trek: Into Darkness and Dormammu (also via motion capture) in Doctor Strange. Incidentally, Cumberbatch also portrayed Sauron in the "Hobbit" trilogy, once again via motion capture, meaning that Cumberbatch portrayed the trilogy's two principal villains. History ''The Hobbit'' One of the last great dragons of Middle-earth, Smaug rose to prominence by laying waste to the town of Dale and capturing the Lonely Mountain (Erebor) with all of its treasure. He was already centuries old at the time, this having happened over 200 years before the events of The Hobbit. The book recounts the tale of a party of dwarves (consisting of a few of the original residents of the Lonely Mountain and their descendants) and the titular hobbit to recapture the mountain and kill the dragon. In the book, he is sometimes called Smaug the Golden, Smaug the Terrible, and Smaug the Magnificent. Smaug was intimately familiar with every last item within his hoard, and instantly noticed the theft of a relatively inconsequential cup by Bilbo Baggins. According to Tolkien, his rage was the kind which "is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy lose something they have long had but never before used or wanted". This theft and the dragon's ensuing rampage all echo the story of Beowulf, on which Tolkien was a noted expert and which he described as one of his "most valued sources" for The Hobbit. Among the items in Smaug's possession were the Arkenstone, and a number of mithril mail shirts, one of which was given as a gift to Bilbo by Thorin Oakenshield, the company's leader. In The Lord of the Rings, set 60 years later, the shirt saved Bilbo's relative Frodo from injury multiple times. Smaug's belly was crusted in gems and gold, which rendered him almost invulnerable. However, when Bilbo met him in his lair, he discovered a bare patch on his left breast. When Bilbo told his Dwarf companions about Smaug's weakness, he was overheard by the thrush that roosted by the mountain's secret door. The thrush in turn told Bard the Bowman of Esgaroth. When Smaug attacked the town, Bard shot his Black Arrow into Smaug's left breast, the dragon's weak spot, slaying Smaug and causing him to plunge into Esgaroth. After death After Smaug's death, Thorin and Company claimed the treasure as theirs by birthright. This created a conflict with Bard and the Elven king, Thranduil, of Mirkwood, who each wanted a portion of the gold as reimbursement for all of the damage that Smaug had caused their kingdoms over the years. Thorin refused to share the treasure as long as they stood in arms before his gate, and declared war on both of them. Conflict was avoided by the arrival of the Goblin and Warg army who wanted the treasure out of greed, and the Dwarves decided to ally with the Elves and Men to fight this greater enemy in what was known as the Battle of Five Armies. The huge battle was eventually won by the Elves, Men and Dwarves, but Thorin was mortally wounded. ''The Hobbit'' (1977 animated film adaptation) In the 1977 Rankin/Bass cartoon film adaptation of The Hobbit, Smaug was voiced by the late Richard Boone. In this version, he resembles an Eastern dragon with ears that are somewhat cat-like. In Sir Peter Jackson's films Smaug also appears in Sir Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy 2012-2014 as one of the primary antagonists, played by Benedict Cumberbatch through motion capture. ''The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' Throughout the first film, Smaug is kept either in shadow or never in full body view to keep his appearance a secret until The Desolation Of Smaug. ''The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug'' Smaug appears as the titular main antagonist. When Bilbo Baggins is sent into the mountain alone to retrieve the Arkenstone, he accidentally awakens Smaug, Before Smaug can spot him, however, Bilbo puts on the One Ring and turns invisible. Bilbo flatters Smaug, pretending to be an admirer, but the dragon is aware of Bilbo's true intentions. Smaug speaks of a darkness coming to their lands that was preparing for war (this is implied to be Sauron). Smaug reveala to Bilbo that he knows that he was sent to receive the Arkenstone from Thorin and his company. Bilbo feigns ignorance, but Smaug is not fooled. As he talka with Smaug, Bilbo locates a bare patch on his left breast. When Bilbo locates the Arkenstone, Smaug says that he is tempted to let Bilbo take it and let the it drive Thorin insane as it did his grandfather Thror. Smaug changes his mind, however, and tries to kill Bilbo, but Bilbo once again hides by using the One Ring. In the process, he steals the Arkenstone and escapes. Smaug eventually finds Bilbo, Thorin and the rest of the dwarf company and attempts to kill them all, but they escape. Thorin eventually conjures up a plan to kill the dragon and the dwarves lead him to the forges and trick him into lighting up the furnaces with his fiery breath, and after a long battle with the dragon, Thorin eventually confronts Smaug and reveals the giant golden dwarf statue, which was set up as a trap as the statue melted into gold and they attempted to drown Smaug in it. Unfortunately for the dwarves, their strategy failed, as Smaug bursts out of the rivers of melted gold, shakes all of the gold off and flies towards Lake-town, intending to destroy it in a display of power. ''The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies'' Smaug attacks Lake-town, destroying everything in his path and burning the entire city to the ground. Bard the Bowman, having just escaped capture from the corrupt Master of Lake-town, attempts to pelt Smaug with normal arrows, to no avail. Bard's son Bain suddenly appears and gives his father the last Black Arrow to use against Smaug. The dragon spots Bard and Bain and taunts them both before attempting to kill them. Bard spots Smaug's weak spot and fires the arrow into the bare patch, killing Smaug As Smaug's corpse plunges into the lake, it crushes the fleeing Master of Lake-town. ''LEGO: The Hobbit'' Video Game In the 2014 Lego video game adaptation of the The Hobbit films, Smaug is naturally featured in it as well. He appears as a minifigure and officially appeared in his Lego dragon form in a Lego Hobbit set on October 2014. Personality Smaug's only motivation was his greed, he loved gold more than anything and was incredibly possessive over it, even when he had claimed the treasure of Erebor he refused to part with not one single gold coin as he said to Bilbo and was left completely mesmerized when he saw a solid gold statue. Smaug can also be ruthless and cruel, as he destroyed the entire kingdom of Erebor to seize its treasure, nearly allowed the Hobbit to take the Arkenstone so he could watch it corrupt Oakenshield's heart and destroyed the entire village of Laketown as to hurt Thorin's Company. Smaug is also motivated by a sense of vengeance, as when he saw that Dwarves were stealing from him, he destroyed the entire Laketown as an act of revenge. Film version While his personality is more or less the same as the book, in the movie, Smaug is considerably more malicious and cruel. He takes much more pleasure in psychologically tormenting Bilbo, making suggestions that Thorin was just using him, choosing to spare Bilbo just so that he can watch Laketown burn, and sarcastically asking him how he would like to die. During his attack on Laketown, Smaug went out of his way to mock and sneer at Bard and Bain. He was also aware of the return of Sauron, and was apparently intent on joining forces with him. Like his book counterpart, Smaug is extremely destructive and arrogant, and the mere implication that he may possess a weakness made him visibly angry; being insulted by Thorin also was quick to earn his anger. Smaug was also purely confident and persuasive in his own powers, shown in his famous speech about how certain components of his body were weapons of destruction. Smaug was also utterly manipulative and merciless, completely capable of committing genocide in pursuit of his goals. Due to his hubris, egomania and overall extreme narcissism, Smaug clearly suffers from a superiority complex. Quotes Trivia *In An Unexpected Journey, Smaug clearly has four legs, while in its extended edition, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Smaug has four limbs. **This could be because the filmmakers were still making concept designs for Smaug when The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released into theaters. Why they could have done this is unknown, but it may have been a surprise to the audience for Smaug's final design in the later releases. *Although Smaug breathes fire during the battle in the film, he never makes reference to "the shock of my tail a thunderbolt" or "my breath death" as he does in the book, nor does he use either on the mountainside before going to Laketown. He also doesn't use any tail whips during the battle. *A red dragon appears in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who lives in a tall mountain laying on a treasure hoard, giving him a resemblance to Smaug who was likely his inspiration. Also, the episode where he appears has a similar theme song to Lord of the Rings, and, although this may be a coincidence, six ponies go to convince him to leave Equestria, while in the book Smaug eats six ponies. *Smaug's infamous atrocities on Dwarves (including drove them all away from their homeland Lonely Mountain) and deadly capacity in causing massive destruction are reasons why Gandalf wanted Smaug to be destroyed before the War of the Ring began: Had Smaug allied with Sauron, it would have meant almost certain ruin for the Free Peoples—the forces of Rohan and Gondor would not have been able to bring him down without suffering enormous losses. This idea is reinforced in the extended version of An Unexpected Journey when Gandalf meets with the White Council at Rivendell, as he expresses concern at the possibility of Smaug allying with the new darkness that Radagast has encountered (Although Saruman dismisses this as nothing more than some human playing with black magic rather than recognizing it as Sauron). **The extended edition of The Desolation of Smaug confirms Gandalf's fear of Smaug and Sauron working together as Thrain reveals. This explains his vast knowledge of Sauron and the Ring as he alludes in the theatrical version. Precisely why he would join the Dark Lord is unclear, but it is possible that despite his strength, he does not have the power to fight Sauron with the One Ring along with his dark forces. It's also quite possible that he was a devout follower of Morgoth, as it was Morgoth who has (presumably) originally bred dragons; plus, it was Sauron who was Morgoth's right-hand. Fortunately, Smaug eventually killed by Bard before he had a chance to do so. **While concerns about Smaug would possibly join forces with Sauron are already bad, there's an indication that instead of aiding the Dark Lord, Smaug would compete in power with Sauron to some extent, hinted by the fact of Sauron sent his forces to Erebor after the news of his death had spread. This could mean that Smaug was only pretending to work with Sauron, but actually intended to overthrow him, similarly to Saruman in the novel The Lord of the Rings. *As of 2013, Smaug is ranked by Forbes (as part of their annual Forbes Fictional 15) as the second-wealthiest character in all of fiction – adjusted for inflation – with a net worth of $54.1 billion. He is surpassed only by Scrooge McDuck, with a net worth of $67.4 billion. **In 2012, however, he was briefly ranked at number 1, with an estimated net worth of $62.0 billion. **Given that McDuck is technically considered a hero despite his own notorious greed, this may make Smaug the single wealthiest villain in all of fiction. *In film, Smaug was somehow aware of Black Arrows with their proper noun. It is possible due to his recognizing them that he may have encountered the weapons at an unknown prior point in the film continuity or that he remembered their use against him in his attack on Dale. 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